The Barbary Pirates

When we think of pirates, a few things spring to mind; Blackbeard, Treasure Island, a bedraggled Johnny Depp. For centuries in Europe though, the image of a pirate was far more terrifying, because it came in the form of a Barbary Corsair. Muslim sailors hailing from the tip of North Africa, they were the scourge of the Mediterranean, raiding villages in fast, nimble ships, enslaving hundreds of thousands of people for sale to the Ottoman Empire.

Listen to Episode 2 to learn about their exploits that spanned centuries like how they raided, where they raided and the surprising fact that quite often a lot of these “Turkish Scoundrels” were often European outcasts...

Fancy hearing some more tales of nautical shenanigans? Check out our episode on the mutiny on the Bounty.